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The Regions This Week
October 12, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 9
Eurasia
A Kazakh court sentenced the former mayor of Kazakhstan’s largest city Almaty in absentia to 17 years in prison. Viktor Khrapunov and
his wife Leila Kharpunova were found guilty of fraud, creating and running an organised crime group, money laundering, abuse of office, and embezzlement.
The Central Bank of Iran ringfenced $3bn of reserves to cover the financing of imports of pharmaceutical products, Islamic Republic News Agency reported. The country is making sure nearly all pharmaceutical products will remain available despite sanctions.
Prosperous Armenia Party leader Gagik Tsarukian is backing Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s plan to force snap general elections in Armenia in December. Tsarukian's move comes one week after he was pushed out of the governing coalition formed after the country’s spring ‘people’s revolution’.
Tajikistan established an alternate route for deliveries of goods from Azerbaijan, which bypasses Turkmenistan, Trend news agency reported. The development follows Turkmenistan’s blockading of Tajik trucks as well as trucks from other countries with Tajikistan as their final destination.
Transparency International Georgia accused the government of an "unprecedented attack" on NGOs prior to the presidential elections on October 28. The transparency watchdog is pulling out of the Georgian Inter-Agency Commission
for Free and Fair Elections in response, saying it "no longer sees a potential for maintaining a constructive dialogue with the government”.
Kyrgyzstan's Supreme Court ordered the immunity enjoyed by ex-presidents to be cancelled, ruling it unconstitutional. The ruling comes at a time when current President
Sooranbai Jeenbekov appears to be locked in a power struggle with his predecessor Almazbek Atambayev, who stepped down in November 2017.
Mongolia's parliament voted to dismiss transport minister Bat-Erdene Jadamba after an official was beaten to death inside the ministry's building in August. The killing, allegedly by a fellow official, is believed to related to a dispute over a ministry job — government jobs are highly sought after in the country.
Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev blamed the lack of industry in the Ferghana Valley on his predecessor’s widow. A recording leaked to RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service revealed that Mirziyoyev considered Islam Karimov’s wife, Tatyana Karimova, and her sister-in-law Tamara were ultimately responsible for the situation in the vital region.
Azerbaijan can boost its non-oil exports by
16% with petrochemical output at new plants developed by SOCAR Polymer, AzerNews reported director general of the company Farid Jafarov
as saying. Turkey would be a priority market
for sales, while shipments to Russia and into European markets are planned.
Royal Dutch Shell backed out of plans to buy a stake in Kazakhstan’s KazMunayGas (KMG), Bloomberg reported, citing three anonymous sources familiar with the matter. The decision came following a due diligence process which included discussions on corruption risks at the state-run oil and gas company.
The US asked the International Court of Justice to throw out a claim by Iran to retrieve bank assets worth $1.75bn impounded by US courts during the 1979 Islamic Revolution. In 2016, the US Supreme Court ruled that the funds must be turned over to American families of victims of alleged Iranian terrorist attacks.